Malafronte: American tennis fans have great expectations for Madison Keys

Madison Keys returns to Agnieszka Radwanska during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, earlier this month.

Madison Keys returns to Agnieszka Radwanska during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, earlier this month.

Photo: Alastair Grant — The Associated Press File Photo

Photo: Alastair Grant — The Associated Press File Photo

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Madison Keys returns to Agnieszka Radwanska during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, earlier this month.

Madison Keys returns to Agnieszka Radwanska during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, earlier this month.

Photo: Alastair Grant — The Associated Press File Photo

Malafronte: American tennis fans have great expectations for Madison Keys

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Madison Keys won’t be reading this column. Nothing personal, of course. She says she never reads anything written about her. It’s a little trick to help remain focused on her own tennis hopes and dreams; not those of others.

Because when you’re the top-ranked American in the world not named Serena or Venus, it’s easy to lose sight of how far you’ve come and how much further you have to go to truly make an impact on the WTA Tour.

We’re unclear on whether Madison reads headlines, but here are a few from this past month that give a good idea of the lofty expectations placed upon the 20-year-old from Rock Island, Illinois.

“Madison Keys is going to be America’s next Wimbledon champion” — July 2, USA Today

Last year, at age 19, she won her first tour event. In January she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, her best showing at a Grand Slam event, losing to Serena Williams. Earlier this month she got to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

Williams is considered the overwhelming favorite at the U.S. Open. Delve into those sensational headlines and it’s clear that many feel the torch for American tennis will soon be passed to Keys.

During a conference call organized to drum up interest in next month’s Connecticut Open, Keys said it’s not easy to ignore the cacophony of hype and concentrate on her existing plan for success.

“It’s great to have so much support behind you,” Keys said. “At the same time, your own expectations and your immediate team’s expectations are what drive you and is what your motivation is.”

Not all the publicity is kind. Some feel Keys doesn’t have the drive to win a Grand Slam. There were some raised eyebrows when, earlier this year, Keys, when asked about pressure, told the Wall Street Journal she “could quit tomorrow and my mom would be like, ‘OK, whatever you want to do.’”

The point missed is that Keys’ family and her new coaching tandem of former WTA star Lindsay Davenport and her husband, Jon, are trying to avoid laying undue pressure on a young woman who has been playing tour events since age 14.

Others point to an unremarkable showing at Grand Slam events prior to her Australian breakout. She’s still yet to win more than one match in the main draw in five U.S. Open appearances. Keys says she turned off the notifications function on Twitter earlier this year after receiving some mean-spirited comments from folks who’d lost money wagering on her to win.

“Sometimes it’s hard not to get sucked into what people are saying about you,” Keys said. “At the end of the day, there might be great comments about you, and people think you’re wonderful. But you don’t remember those. You remember the ones people are saying mean, hateful things about you.”

Keys hasn’t exactly gone cold turkey when it comes to social media. Her Twitter bio states she is “fluent in sarcasm” and she frequently sends updates to roughly 30,000 followers. Three days ago she posted a couple of photos from an afternoon at the beach. On July 11, she congratulated Serena on her 21st Grand Slam crown, ending with the hashtag GOAT (greatest of all-time, for the text acronym illiterate).

Whether Keys ever gets on the Grand Slam victory board remains to be seen. But it’s clear her game has turned a corner since the Davenports signed on to coach her in November. Keys spends her training blocks — in the spring and the past few weeks since returning from England — living with Lindsay and Jon, a former USC tennis player, and the couple’s four children in California.

Many of the inconsistencies that plagued her game as a teenager are beginning to vanish. She says she is more confident in her game and will enter the field at Stanford next week ranked 18th in the world. Her $1.25 million in prize money this year represents better than half her career earnings.

Davenport’s mentorship also brings Keys to Yale for the first time. Davenport enjoyed great success using New Haven to tune up for the U.S. Open, winning the 2005 title and placing second five times at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

“New York is crazy and hectic; there’s so much going on, sometimes it’s hard to get practice in and stay focused,” Keys said. “Being on courts that are the same, and being so close to the Open and away from New York as long as you can be while getting matches in is great.”

On a much-smaller, less-stressful scale, Keys could be in line to end a streak of disappointing American performances in New Haven. Since Davenport’s runner-up finish to Justine Henin in 2006, only three U.S. women have advanced to the quarterfinal round. None have reached the semifinals.

Keys is one of a handful of rising young stars hoping to usher in the next wave of U.S. women’s tennis. CoCo Vandeweghe and Sloane Stephens are also in the New Haven field. Among up-and-comers Alison Riske — a quarterfinalist here last summer — Varvara Lepchenko, Madison Brengle and Christina McHale, only Riske is older than 24.

But none have the potential and expectations of Keys, a fact she’s keenly aware of despite all attempts to keep in perspective. This column included.